Jeffersonville High School gets student tracking program

Clark County

Discussion

August 8, 2012

Jeffersonville High School gets student tracking program

System aims to quell tradiness issue

By JEROD CLAPP jerod.clapp@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Wed Aug 08, 2012, 08:00 AM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — The purchase of a new student tracking system for Jeffersonville High School was passed at Tuesday’s meeting of the Greater Clark County Schools board of trustees, but not without some opposition.

David Milburn, assistant principal at JHS, said the purpose of the system is to help keep students more accountable for tardiness, noting the school’s 25,000 tardies in the 2011-2012 school year.

“Those students who get most of those tardies are the students who struggle and have to make up credits and go to our summer school programs,” Milburn said. “We want to address that and get a handle on that before it gets to that point this year.”

He said students who are tardy would report to the central office or one of two mobile stations, check in with their student ID and their name would be entered into a database to keep track of and help enforce progressive discipline.

He also said the system could keep track of students who arrive and leave a sports event or dance in case parents wanted to make sure their child was at school.

He said some schools that had implemented the program saw up to a 50 percent drop in tardiness in nine weeks.

But some board members raised concern with how late the item was presented to them and whether students need to have a higher level of tracking.

Andrew Melin, superintendent, apologized for the late notice for a vote on the $12,241 program from PlascoTrac, but said if a decision wasn’t met immediately, the program would cost another $5,000.

He also stressed the importance of tackling tardiness to prevent other issues.

“This tardy issue is a distraction and a disruption in our school corporation, and it’s something that all of us in our school corporation have to attack and address, and we believe this system will help us get that done,” Melin said.

Milburn said the assistant principals at the school met to find a solution to tardiness in June and saw a presentation on the system in late July. Melin said the district was granted an extension from the original July deadline for the discounted price.

Ernie Gilbert, board member, said financial decisions need more careful consideration, which requires more notice to allow research.

“The thing that this kind of got me a little off kilter is well, we had an idea that we thought we’d like to do something like this, and then here it is,” Gilbert said. “I would have liked to have seen this done earlier. If we’re just throwing $10,000 here, $12,000 here, we’re getting ourselves in trouble.”

Melin said he would hold the district accountable for all its purchases and come back with a report on the effectiveness of the program in the spring.

“In our financial position that we’re in, we know that we’re not out of the woods,” Melin said. “We also need to be very smart with our purchases and we need to begin prioritizing those things that are really important that are effective. We can’t just throw money at something and continue to purchase it year after year, we have to be accountable for our purchases.”

Becka Christensen, board member, raised concern about how much students would get tracked, but Milburn said nothing tracks the student constantly. Nothing is logged until the student ID is scanned into the system.

The board voted in favor of the measure 6-1, Christensen opposing.

The board also approved a contract for a grant writing company at JHS. The grant writer will seek grants to pay for the installation of more security cameras at the school. The payment of $1,000 was donated by the Fraternal Order of Police.

Also passed unanimously was the contract for School Messenger, which can send important notices or phone calls to students and parents.

Also, Tom Dykiel, the district’s new chief financial officer, was unanimously approved as the district’s treasurer as per Indiana State Code.

The board also approved contracts for athletic trainer services in all three of the district’s high schools and approved the calendar changes in the elementary athletic handbook.